Combustion of a fuel, such as coal, oil, peat, waste, etc., in a combustion plant, such as a power plant, generates a hot process gas containing, among other components, sulphur oxides, SOx, such as sulphur dioxide, SO2, and carbon dioxide, CO2. Sulphur dioxide is an environmental pollutant. Hence, it is necessary to remove at least a portion of the sulphur dioxide contained in a process gas before releasing the process gas into the atmosphere. Furthermore, with increasing focus on the negative environmental impacts of carbon dioxide gas, it has become important to remove also carbon dioxide from process gases before releasing them to the atmosphere.
WO 2008/042554 describes a wet scrubber in which a perforated plate is arranged adjacent to a number of atomizing nozzles. Each of the perforations in the perforated plate is aligned with a cone of absorption liquid sprayed from an atomizing nozzle.
The perforated plate illustrated in WO 2008/042554 may in some cases yield a rather high process gas pressure drop, which is not necessarily indicative of an increase in sulphur dioxide removal efficiency.